View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - RING OUT THE OLD

RING OUT THE OLD

Well there goes 2022. Whoosh. Bye then, don't let the door hit you on the way out. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya. It was, continuing the tradition of several recent years, a pretty awful one, wasn't it? Wars in the East, financial instability leading to a massive cost of living crisis, the continued threat and lingering after-effects of COVID, crippling strikes in every job sector and a revolving door policy throughout our entire political system that's left even Larry the Downing Street cat, the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, unsure as to who's emptying his litter tray this week. And yes that's really his official title.

But at least we have nature. In 2022 nature did what nature always does. Nature carried on as normal. Thank you nature, we needed your stability. Not only did we see the usual seasonal changes but here at the RSPB Dearne Valley nature provided us with quite a lot of extra stuff to be pleased about throughout the year.

We had great breeding success from our endangered trio of reed bed species this spring. Approximate number of birds raised to adulthood are four Marsh Harriers, a similar number of Bitterns and over a dozen Bearded Reedlings. I'm being deliberately vague because it isn't easy being 100% accurate when we don't get 'hands on' with the nests, but we can all agree that the breeding birds have done a great job in helping improve the viability of their respective gene pools.

We had the delightful Spoonbills staying with is in the warmer months too. In previous years Old Moor has just seen one or two of these unusual looking birds stopping by for the odd day or so each year. However, in 2022 we had seven individuals stay with us for almost the entire summer. Some were ringed so we know that they were young birds, hatched in the Netherlands, and they looked very comfortable at our Wath Ings corner. So comfortable in fact that some were seen carrying nesting material. In human terms that was the equivalent of a first teenage date, so if they return next year (and there's a fair chance that they could) then we could possibly start crossing our fingers in hope of some nests and maybe even the patter of tiny Tea Spoons! And yes, that too is the official term. Every day's a school day.

Other delights for our birding community that popped in to see us have included a Yellowlegs, Wood Sandpiper, Common Scoter, Whooper Swans, Black Redstart, Temmink's Stint, Water Pipits, Green Winged Teal, Grey Phalarope and a very welcome Merlin. Seeing even one of that lot would make any birder's day and are all pretty rare visitors to this part of the country. And beyond the birds we've even had a fair bit of photographic evidence to prove that there are now Otters frequenting the rivers around the edge of the reserve. That particular bit of news brought a lot of excitement to the staff as we all tried (and all failed) to see the creatures in question.

And then there are our dragonflies and damselflies. I'll leave it to our resident expert David Pritchard to provide deep dive details but suffice to say it's been an incredible year for our Odonata (that's Greek for 'toothy ones', fact fans, and it covers dragons and damsels. I'm full of it today). I'm not completely sure of the final numbers recorded but there are 42 breeding species in Britain and we've spotted around half of these at Old Moor this year, including recording Willow Emerald damselflies breeding here for the first time. That makes us an important site of scientific interest for these under-appreciated creatures. It's not only their mothers that love them.

The newly renovated Green Lane and the recently added path (I'm still lobbying for it to be named Wader Way) at Old Moor are bedding in well, and me and the other Welcome volunteers have settled into our new shed at the entrance to the site. Yes, it's terribly warped and draughty but it keeps most of the wind and rain out and it even now has electricity! That means that we can see what we're doing at the end of a Winter's day and crucially we can even have a small heater (or three at the moment). I can't tell you how much of a difference that makes. All they used to supply to fend off the sub-zero temperatures was a fleece and an endless supply of coffee. Not that I'm ungrateful....

We've hosted some great events throughout the year too. The Spring and Christmas fairs were fantastically busy and we had great fun with our Shakespeare shows and the children's Easter event. The Light Nights with lanterns and illuminated puppets were fabulously successful too, bringing oohs and aahs of delight to all who saw them, either on the reserve or out and about in town.

So all in all, despite what's been going on in the world beyond our boundary fence, it's been a great year at Old Moor on all fronts. May 2023 surpass it, and may you come to visit and share in some of that pleasure for yourself.

Wishing you a healthy, happy and peaceful New Year from myself - Volunteer Shaun - and all the RSPB Dearne Valley staff and volunteers.